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How NFL Teams Go All-In at the Trade Deadline

Here’s how NFL teams go all-in at the trade deadline: swap future picks for proven help now, then live with fewer chances to build the next roster.

By Brett Hanson · Underdog Podcasts · November 12, 2026

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Chris Horwedel was having a rough time with the trade list. The Eagles had sent Jordan Davis, one of his favorite players, to Jacksonville. That stung. Then came the return: a 2027 first-round pick and a 2029 second-round pick.

That is how NFL teams go all-in at the trade deadline. They give another club future draft choices for a player who can help now. Jacksonville did it three times in one day, adding Davis and safety Jessie Bates III among its new defenders. The hope is plain: a known player can fix a need before this season is over. The cost arrives in later drafts.

How do NFL teams go all-in at the trade deadline?

A contender cannot make next spring’s draft happen in November. It can trade the right to choose a player then. In return, it gets someone with NFL games already on his résumé, ready to join the roster during the season.

Jacksonville showed the method on November 9, 2026. One day before the league’s deadline, the Jaguars acquired Bates from Atlanta. They also brought in defensive tackles Davis from Philadelphia and Davon Godchaux from New Orleans. The team was 6-2 and led the AFC South. It had reason to care about the next few months.

On The Underdog NFL Show, in the episode “298: Jaguars Go All-In,” Horwedel reached for a familiar comparison: the Rams’ willingness to spend picks on established players. Mario Hines put it more simply. “They’re all in,” he said. “They’re clearly all in for something.”

The phrase can make it sound as if a team has spent every last pick. Jacksonville had not. It had chosen to spend valuable ones, including its next first-rounder. That changes the choices a team will have when it needs to add young players later.

General manager James Gladstone resisted the label. He told Jaguars media he would describe the moves as getting better and building a team. Both things can be true. A team can plan beyond this season while still paying a steep price to improve it.

Why did the Jaguars trade for Bates and Davis?

The timing came with a problem. Jacksonville had placed safety Eric Murray on injured reserve, and defensive tackle DaVon Hamilton was also out. The Jaguars needed help at the back of the defense and in the middle of its line. They had a strong record, with games still to play.

Hines liked what Bates could do behind the front seven. He gave the trade a B+ on the show, reasoning that stronger coverage might give the players up front more time to make a play. Bates had started all 139 NFL games he had played before the trade. He also had 28 career interceptions. Jacksonville was buying experience it could name and measure.

Davis offered a different kind of help. At defensive tackle, he could strengthen a group that had lost Hamilton. He was a captain in Philadelphia in 2026 and had helped the Eagles win a Super Bowl. He was also already under contract beyond this season, making him more than a short rental.

Godchaux made the day look less like a single splash and more like a repair job. He gave Jacksonville another defensive tackle after Hamilton’s injury. Hines saw him as useful in a rotation and gave that deal a B.

There was one small catch to the rush for immediate help. Jaguars coach Liam Coen said Bates and Davis would not play against Tennessee on November 15. Both had already played nine games for their former teams, which had yet to take a bye. Godchaux was set to play. Even a player acquired for right now may have to wait a week.

What draft picks did Jacksonville give up?

The Bates deal cost Jacksonville a second-round pick in 2027 and a fifth-round pick in 2028. Davis cost a first-round pick in 2027 and a second-round pick in 2029. Godchaux cost a conditional sixth-round pick.

That is five picks across three deals, with a first-rounder and two second-rounders doing most of the work. The conditions on the Godchaux pick make its final cost less certain. The price for Bates and Davis is already clear.

A pick is easy to call a future asset because nobody knows the player’s name yet. Its other use is flexibility. A club can draft with it or trade it when a new need appears. After these deals, Jacksonville has fewer high picks to use either way.

“They’re all in. They’re clearly all in for something.”
— Mario Hines, on The Underdog NFL Show

Horwedel’s reaction to the Davis price gets at the hardest part of these trades. He said a 2029 second-round pick alone would have felt like fair value to him, even though he did not see why Philadelphia would accept it. Add the 2027 first, and he thought the Eagles had done remarkably well. Hines disagreed at first, calling it a fair swap before giving Davis an A for Jacksonville.

They were judging different parts of the same deal. Hines loved the player Jacksonville got. Horwedel kept looking at what Philadelphia could now do with the picks. It is possible for Davis to be excellent in Jacksonville and for the Eagles to put those choices to good use.

Why can a win-now trade pay off?

A draft choice offers a chance to find a good player. Bates is one already. Davis has started NFL games and played in the postseason. If their skills match Jacksonville’s needs, the team avoids waiting for a rookie to learn the job.

The fit matters. Jacksonville said its run defense ranked first in the NFL both last season and at the time of the trades. That might sound like an odd place to spend so much on Davis. Yet Hamilton’s injury left a hole in the middle, and keeping a strong part of the team strong has value. A single injury should not force the defense to change what it does well.

Bates addressed another aim. Jacksonville wanted to limit long gains and take the ball away. A safety who can cover ground behind the line gives the defense more room for error when opponents throw. Hines pictured Bates helping the pass rush by making receivers harder to find. That is a football reason to make the move, separate from the excitement of making one.

There is a human reason, too. Coen told his players the question was how great they wanted to be. The front office answered with action while the team was 6-2. Players still have to learn each other’s calls and habits, and no trade can do that work for them. A new teammate is more useful once everyone knows where he will be.

How can trading future picks hurt a team?

The cost shows up most clearly in the 2027 draft. Jacksonville sent out its first- and second-round picks from that year in the Davis and Bates deals. Two chances gone. If an offensive lineman or another safety becomes a need, Jacksonville can pursue players in other ways, though it will have fewer easy choices.

Later picks matter as well. The 2028 fifth-rounder sent to Atlanta and the 2029 second-rounder sent to Philadelphia could have become players. They could also have helped Jacksonville make another trade. Nobody can say who would have been chosen with them. That uncertainty is why the cost can feel painless on deadline day.

It can become sharper if the team falls short. A playoff push may end before the goal that drove it. Injuries may change the roster again. Even if Bates and Davis play well, the Jaguars could find themselves needing young help where they no longer hold a high pick.

The contracts make the risk different for each player. Gladstone said Bates and Godchaux were in the final seasons of their deals when Jacksonville acquired them. Davis had years left on his. If a player leaves, the club cannot simply ask for its old pick back. It must decide what a new deal is worth, with the trade price already paid.

Is Jacksonville’s move only about this season?

No. Davis gives the Jaguars a player for future seasons as well as the rest of 2026. Gladstone made that point when he pushed back on the “all-in” description. Calling every deadline trade a one-year gamble misses the difference between acquiring a player under contract and acquiring one whose deal is nearly over.

Keeping Davis beyond this season does not make the cost disappear. Jacksonville gave up future draft control for a player it knows, and whether that was the right call will take longer to tell. The choice is made.

Bates presents a more pressing question. Gladstone said Jacksonville would let him settle in before seeing what came next with his contract. That is reasonable for a new teammate. It also means the Jaguars spent a 2027 second-round pick without a new long-term agreement in place.

Horwedel’s voice gave away how strange the Davis deal felt from the other side. He called Davis a really good player and an even better person, then returned to that first-round pick. Philadelphia had parted with a captain. Jacksonville had paid to bring him in. Neither club gets to use the pick while it waits to learn which feeling lasts.

The full episode of The Underdog NFL Show is on Underdog Podcasts, with the rest of the network's shows.